Conversations We Need To Have

They Wanted the Presidential Pendulum to Swing, So They Voted Against Their Own Interests

Analysts, pundits, and even voters have questioned how the political rise of Donald Trump happened so quickly. There are several narratives to explain Trump’s ascent to the Presidency. He is an outsider without “ties” to Washington. He is not a politician. He is a job creator. While each of these statements is true to some degree, I believe there is a different reason for Trump. To me, it’s obvious: the main reason why Donald Trump is now the President of the United States is because a lot of people wanted the “Presidential Pendulum” to swing as far away from Barack Hussein Obama as possible.

A lot of people cast their vote , in large part because they wanted the “Presidential Pendulum” to swing as far away from Barack Hussein Obama as possible.

A lot of people can see our demographics changing, so they wanted the “Presidential Pendulum” to swing as far away from Barack Hussein Obama as possible.

A lot of people desire to “Make America Great Again,” so they wanted the “Presidential Pendulum” to swing as far away from Barack Hussein Obama as possible.

Opponents and critics intentionally presented doom and gloom scenarios about a Barack Hussein Obama Presidency to scare people. Even though many of the doomsday scenarios the Obama Presidency was sure to bring never occurred, people were scared. Even as the Obama Presidency came to end, people were still scared. Even in the post-Obama era, people will be scared going forward. They needed someone to alleviate their fears. They chose Donald Trump. They wanted the “Presidential Pendulum” to swing as far away from Barack Hussein Obama as possible.

One thing about the transition of power from Barack Hussein Obama to Donald Trump is many people chose to vote against their own interests because they wanted the “Presidential Pendulum” to swing as far away from Barack Hussein Obama as possible. Let’s apply some logic by using a couple examples. To be clear, not all voters use one criterion to determine their vote. Also, not all people in deep-red states blindly vote Republican. Nevertheless, the examples that follow are worth consideration.

If Obama was the “Food Stamp President” and voting for Hillary Clinton was an extension of his policies, then why would deep-red states vote Republican? Take Mississippi for example. In 2015, Mississippi ranked first in the percentage of residents on food stamps (21.7%), and had over 650,000 total recipients. Although this is not the only reason to cast a vote, if I was a food stamp recipient in Mississippi I would strongly consider voting for any Democrat, especially the “Food Stamp President” (similar food stamp statistics also exist in deep-red states like Tennessee, Louisiana, and West Virginia to name a few).

Sure, this is only one example of people potentially voting against their interests because they wanted the “Presidential Pendulum” to swing as far away from Barack Hussein Obama as possible. Another example is healthcare. As we all know, the controversy surrounding the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has been tremendous. Republicans have held numerous unsuccessful votes to repeal Obamacare. Now that Donald Trump is in Office, the race to repeal Obamacare has picked up even more steam. Yet voters in deep-red states have enrolled in and benefit from Obamacare, so repeal would cause them to lose, or at least change, their healthcare options. Keep in mind that a lot of these people were uninsured before Obamacare.

A list of Obamacare enrollments in some deep-red states as of January 17, 2017:

Alabama: 178,414

Georgia: 493,880

South Carolina: 230,211

Tennessee: 234,125

Texas: 1,227,290

To be clear, this does not mean all of the Obamacare enrollees voted Republican, but you can be sure some of them did. It also does not mean those who voted against this interest would have turned the result of the election in each particular state from Republican to Democrat. Yet it does show that people in deep-red states, who have been “told” how bad Obamacare is, still benefit from the law. If I was an Obamacare enrollee in Tennessee I would strongly consider voting for any Democrat, because their party introduced Obamacare.

These are not the only examples of people potentially voting against their interests because they wanted the “Presidential Pendulum” to swing as far away from Barack Hussein Obama as possible. If you want more, look for thing like “Obama Deporter-in-Chief”, Obama phones, and Obama and The Dodd-Frank Act as three additional reasons why deep red state Republican voters could have leaned Democrat instead of voting against their self-interests. Careful review of these, and many other examples, leads me to believe that there was a reason for the vitriol against Barack Hussein Obama and the love for Donald Trump (not to mention the hatred for Hillary Clinton).

For me it’s obvious:

They wanted to slow the demographic shift of the United States, so they voted against their own interests.